DANCE REVIEW: Boston Ballet's new 'Swan Lake' worth the wait

By Iris FangerFor The Patriot Ledger

Saturday

Nov 1, 2014 at 7:30 AM

This “new” “Swan Lake” was greeted on opening night by an audience that was alternately mesmerized or cheering.

The Boston Ballet opened its’ 51st season at the Boston Opera House on Thursday night with the long awaited “new” production of everyone’s favorite classic, ”Swan Lake” - and it proved to be worth the wait. After a moment of silence in memory of Mayor Thomas Menino, the curtain came up on a new scene about the kidnapping of the young princess, Odette, set to the overture of P.I. Tchaikovsky’s beloved score.

Although billed as artistic director Mikko Nissinen’s world premiere, let me set your worries aside. Aside from the prologue, the ballet is still largely the traditional “Swan Lake” that has remained an icon of the art form since 1895, when Tchaikovsky’s music was first paired with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Although changes have been made in the ensuing decades as the ballet was brought out of Russia and produced by companies around the world, the basics are intact. The work is anchored by a corps de ballet of 24 swan maidens who are dressed in all-white and moving in perfect symmetry, complete with quivering arms. Once you have seen them floating in the serpentine pattern that winds them from the edge of the lake in the rear to the front of the stage, you will be smitten for life. As Nissinen well knew, the image of the corps of swans is the linchpin of the production. Well rehearsed and beautifully coached into an other-worldly image of virginal beauty, the Boston Ballet women did not disappoint.

The other everlasting centerpiece of the ballet is Odette, the Swan Queen, and her alter-ego, Odile, the Black Swan, partnered by the unlucky Prince Siegfried. Often the Prince is given more to do than in Nissinen’s version. However, Jeffrey Cirio as Siegfried is blessed with acting ability as well as the requisite training to deliver the high jumps and linked turns of his third act solo. Even when not center stage, he lingered at the edges of the action, lost in a dream. He was an outsider at his own court, longing for something beyond his station, but unknowing of his destiny.

Misa Kuranaga appeared as the Swan Queen, Odette, and her evil twin, the Black Swan, Odile, on opening night. She has been a familiar figure in many of the leading roles of the Boston Ballet productions. She was a prodigy in her teen-age years, a prize winner at many ballet competitions for her amazing technical facility which never falters. She’s become a most musical dancer as well, meaning she is intuitive about letting the score inform her movement. As Odette in the second act pas de deux, she nearly swoons into the notes of the adagio, sinking backward to the floor in Siegfried’s arms to pull out every second of the beat. In the third act, she becomes the antic sexual attraction to the bewildered Siegfried’s hypnotic stare. The two of them together have a physical connection as well as an emotional one. He seems to anticipate her every need as a partner, while she trusts him completely. Lasha Khozashvili made a sex-bomb out of Von Rothbart, the evil magician, flicking out his legs like weapons in his demonic solos.

Along with the Boston Ballet conductor, Jonathan McPhee, who varied the tempos of Tchaikovsky’s score in perfect support of the dancers, the other star of this show is set and costume designer Robert Perdziola. For the new sets and costumes, he chose a fairy-tale like palette of pastel colors for the opening scene at the court, dressing the women in “Romeo and Juliet”-type dresses that swayed with their movement. The third act costumes changed to brighter colors, including electric blues and bright reds. Two different gowns and trains worn by the Queen Mother, Kathleen Mitchell, were appliquéd, embroidered and covered with jewels, worthy of any monarch. The third act setting in the palace for the prince’s birthday ball, complete with sepia toned tapestries on the high walls and ceiling frescos, were a delight to the eye.

Nissinen’s triumph lies also in his gift for clarifying the narrative besides the new prologue, and staged many of the mime passages that are often omitted.

One quibble might be the inconclusive ending which mashes up several versions of the story. Even though Von Rothbart is vanquished, we never quite get a satisfactory ending to the heart-rending romance, but no matter. A masterful addition to the Boston Ballet repertory, this “new” “Swan Lake” was greeted on opening night by an audience that was alternately mesmerized or cheering.

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